Broken Soul
by Thunderheart0000
Summary: A slight ship between Otis and Olympia. They're just so cute. Also, Otis is a downer. How the heck is he supposed to deal with someone who speaks in all capitals? The artwork is NOT mine. It's by darkspectrum, but I love this piece of fan art SO much!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Odd Squad. Duh.

This new girl freaked him out.

It really changed the circumstances, since he did skip the academy, and trusted close to no one, but teaming him up with someone this enthusiastic wasn't smart. He didn't even know how to respond to most of what she said.

 _Flashback_

Otis landed in the lobby, trying to look serious (not a problem, you could tell, lol), but the girl next to him wasn't even trying.

"Hi, my name's Olympia! I can't _believe_ I'm here! This is SO exciting! Aren't you excited?!"

He stared straight ahead, listening to everything the terrifying girl in front of him said. It seemed highly dangerous not to. Olympia however, didn't seem to notice. When Ms. O told them to go, she was only concerned with getting to know him better.

"But I didn't even get his -"

"Name's Otis." He continued to look straight ahead, imagining that the reaction to his bluntness would be puppy-faced. He hated puppy faces.

They were then sent off to who-knows-where. (He wasn't really listening)

They had to deal with floating people. Charts, math, all that stuff. This didn't scare him one bit. What scared him was Olympia's reaction. The girl who couldn't stop smiling mere hours ago was breaking down into a teary mess.

"I can't do this! There's nothing. _Nothing!_ I knew I shouldn't have graduated early".She was broken by a challenge. Otis didn't know what to do. Challenges were nothing new to him. You try. A lot.

A-few-hours-ago Otis would have kept trying without her. It was just his nature. But something made him try. Otis heard his voice telling her that they were a team. _Team? I barely know this girl!_ Whatever he said in a moment of sympathy worked. Olympia decided she would try more.

They did, and they succeeded. And Olympia regained that striking grin on her face.

 _End Flashback_

He knew it then. She was obviously an easily pleased person. He wasn't. She wanted to be friends. He didn't. She was going to put all her effort into being the best she could. He wasn't.

He also understood that being a team with her would be hard. It was clear that he couldn't just blow emotions off. He had to feel, and act on how he felt, like she did. This was not in his nature, but he had to go with it. He didn't have much of a choice with someone this emotionally explosive.

All Otis knew was that this job would be just that. An act. He would never be friends with anyone, but definitely not Olympia. He could do a lot, but he could not change.


	2. Chapter 2

Otis had been studying his partner for a while now. She definitely had problems. He first noticed this when they were filling out their first case reports.

"Isn't this great?!" she asked, literally bouncing with excitement.

He was honestly shocked. _She liked paperwork!_ He couldn't understand why. Sure, it was relaxing. No surprises, no troubles, just routine. But like it? Not by a very long shot.

Meanwhile, she chattered on, so he decided that to be her partner, he better learn something about her.

"This place is so big!" she exclaimed. "Why do you think they have a ball pit?"

"I don't know", he replied sarcastically. "I bet it's used for tubes, in case of _special_ cases."

Olympia did not pick up on his dismay. "That's an amazing guess! I thought it was for special meetings, or emergency supplies, you know, to be extra prepared."

That gave him very little to work with. She liked to imagine about things that could never happen.

"How do you think we did on our first case?" she wondered out loud.

"Eh."

"I think we did awesome too!"

Sure, the constant jabbering gave Otis a headache, but it was nice to not be alone in reflection for once. He did a lot of reflecting on his own.

"We should also practice that handshake some more. Do you think we should add a spin, or some more fist bumps?"

Otis rolled his eyes in friendly annoyance. "I think we should add some actual progress to the paperwork."

Olympia grinned. "That too! If we want to be really good agents, that is."

Did she catch any of his sarcasm? Probably not. Either way, she wasn't discriminating against his lack of communication, which was a relief.

Otis also realized that she had a problem with letting others down. Even if she was under stress, she put so much of herself into making others happy.

He couldn't believe her story when he got back from trying to help Noisemaker. Again, he wasn't listening until something shocked him.

 _Flashback_

"So anyway, I felt bad having this room all to myself, so I shared it with fifteen other people and-"

"Hold on." Otis was dumbfounded. "You shared a room with _fifteen_ agents?"

"Oh, no", Olympia giggled. "Most of them were tube operators. Dr. O, Ocean, and Oona were there too, so there were really only a few agents."

"And you just let them stay and complain?"

She sighed. "What else is right? I mean, they're all my friends and colleagues. Why not?"

Otis stayed silent again. _Lots of reasons!_ He couldn't say that, but he didn't want to say anything else either, in case she got a new idea.

 _End Flashback_

Now, Otis was even more sure that this would never work out. Olympia had lots of people skills, but no common sense. They might work well together, but he didn't think he could deal with her.

At least he felt better than he did before. She wasn't going to judge him. So, Otis had to make an effort (eugh) to accept her too.


	3. Chapter 3

Olympia was definitely growing on him.

It wasn't anything romantic, but you really couldn't help but admire her joy in life. Otis knew that he could never achieve this level of enjoyment in anything.

Also, it had become increasingly hard to sink into anger and depression when he had someone that happy by his side all day.

Otis knew that he and Olympia made a great team, despite small quarrels and such. He really needed to put more effort into her. He really didn't even know her that well, and not doing so made him feel guilty.

 _Flashback_

The day he found out about Half-iversaries devastated him. He had to get three gifts for his partner. Well, he didn't have to, but if he didn't, Olympia would be devastated. He couldn't bear seeing her break apart like she did the day he met her.

What was even worse was that he didn't know what to get her. He had to rely on Oona, of all people to help him get the first two. It did seem to be worth it, though.

"You got me a _mint condition owner's manual_?!" Olympia squealed after seeing the picture and the badge.

He looked at what he was holding. "Uh, y-yeah", he stammered.

She looked closer. "It's even in the protective sleeve!"

Otis allowed it to count, thanking his lucky stars that he happened to be holding it. He felt that it was a lie, but it really was impossible to be unhappy around her.

Her gifts were even better. To be honest, Otis didn't care that everyone stared at the kid who was excited over socks, a rock, and a t-shirt. She knew him well, but he couldn't say the same.

 _End Flashback_

He really didn't understand why it was so hard for him to be normal. Maybe if he was, Olympia would connect with him more.

 _Why would he care about that?_ He never cared about what anyone thought. If he did, they'd become friends, and he would be betrayed.

Otis avoided this stuff. All through his life, he was a recluse, and he was fine with it! Now, he obviously was making a friend, so he had to undo what he did fast.

Then again, doing so would hurt Olympia. Would she even be the kind of person to hurt him like that? His heart said no, but his (too well trained) common sense said it was possible.

He decided to take the risk. He had been hurt before, and he could be hurt again.


	4. Chapter 4

Otis was entirely unsure about how to make a friend. He asked Oona (she had given advice before), and she said that he should be friendly.

Big help. Smiling and being approachable wasn't his forte. When Ms. O called him for a case with Olympia, he easily accepted. Working on a case might help him see how to do this.

 _Flashback_

Olympia was staring at the screen. They had just started investigating, since she didn't want to leave when the night shift Odd Squad arrived.

He had seen a great deal of Olympia's tolerance tonight. Since the night agents worked differently, they had to search far and wide for a place to work, while keeping up with their case files.

Finally, Olympia convinced Mr. O to work with them, as a team, even without the 'talking ball'. Otis was pleasantly surprised to hear a lot of what he believed he said to her on their first day.

"Mr. O, on the day shift, we talk to each other. We work as a team. That's what helps us solve so many cases, even if we have to struggle to do it."

And so, they could finally pick their work back up on the SkunkBat case.

Olympia looked discouraged, but not to the point of giving up. "There's no pattern in the coordinates, no matter how we look at them."

He studied how Olympia interacted with both of them. She seemed very intent on keeping Mr. O in the conversation. This wasn't working well. Mr. O was becoming more and more confused with the grid.

"I'm not sure what any of these points are. We should look at pictures of the places that were hit, so we all know where the SkunkBat went."

Olympia was keen on the idea. "Why didn't we think of that?"

When they examined the buildings, they were all yellow.

"That's the answer!" he exclaimed. "Mr. O, you solved the case!"

Olympia smiled at them both. Otis took note, not so much of the smiles, but of the fact that accepting others' ideas seemed to be a friendly attribute. Maybe he didn't need to be so harsh on judging people's' personalities by their (usually not successful) ideas.

 _End Flashback_

Now that the case was concluded, Otis approached her.

"O-olympia? Do you think that I'm being a better agent (he was too embarrassed to say friend) by trying to accept others?"

She looked at him strangely, as if she didn't understand why he was asking. _Oh no. She doesn't see it at all! I must be doing a terrible job!_

"Otis, of course you're doing better! You talk to me more, you're accepting my ideas, even if they're the worst, and you've even been asking customers what the problem is! Why do you want to know?" she asked with a smile.

Otis was sure that he had gone a very deep shade of red. "Well, I want to be a better partner too, so you'll...be my friend?"

For a second she froze. He closed his eyes in embarrassment. _I failed miserably._

He opened his eyes after a few seconds, gaining enough sense to look less pathetic than he already was when Olympia tackled him with a knock-you-down hug.

"Otis", she whispered. "I am your friend!"

He hugged her back then. What had happened to him when he was younger was enough to damage his trust, but he knew that with her help, they could repair it.

They could become better together.


	5. Got a Question (Not an update)

No, this is not an update, but I do have a question for the almost 600 (squee!) people who read this.

Do you guys want me to post my story on Wattpad too? I've seen that lilwoodb did post Ships Ahoy! On Wattpad, I thought I might do it too. Just wanted to know!

Thanks for your support, guys! Bye!


End file.
